Using artistic observation to reflect the vibrancy of varying landscapes, artist Alice Linford Forte transforms oil and canvas into serene and mesmerising pieces.
 
Over the last 12 years, Alice has gradually turned what began as an artistic side hustle, whilst working in hospitality roles, into a successful career as a full-time artist. She explains, “it has happened quite naturally over the last 12 years” – when deciding to devote all of her time to painting, “the business just grew from there”.

Now, Alice spends most days diving into the creative flow, painting away in her studio perched amongst the Birchfield Farmstay, located in the Margaret River region of WA.

Born in England, and raised in Australia, Alice has spent a lot of time in constant motion between her two homes. Naturally, Alice caught the ‘travel bug’ for herself and has since endeavoured to explore countries across the world, including Morocco, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and various locations throughout Europe.
 
Reflecting the colours and vibrancy of scenes from her travels, it’s hard to envision that Alice’s scenescapes merely began as a blank stretch of canvas.
 
While overseas travel had been put on hold in the last few years, Alice’s most recent artworks depict the colours and landscapes of Western Australia – spanning from the coastal settings of the South West to the rugged and expansive Pilbara.

The Process
 
Beginning with a piece of canvas, either stretched across a frame, stapled to the wall, or laid flat across the table, Alice starts simply – Step 1: apply colour. From there, the magic unfolds.
 
Like starting with the big picture perspective and zooming in, Alice starts by spreading colour across the canvas until she is happy with the composition and then zooms in on the detail. She explains, as the brushes get smaller and her focus narrows, she aims to draw attention to “certain areas where the shapes and colour combination has evolved beautifully”.

“Really, it’s very intuitive and there’s no forward planning, which also means there’s no guarantee that it will work out.”
Alice clarifies, she has a method, but really “the method has a mind of its own.”

Behind the Scene(scapes)
 
For now, Alice continues to pursue her art as a side project whilst juggling motherhood and managing the business - “I’m slowly finding the balance.”

As a small business owner, Alice finds the biggest challenges in the mundane, everyday business tasks, the “marketing, administration, managing finances”… basically, “anything that doesn’t involve the creative side of things!”
 
Alice also understands how important it is to learn “how to ride the ups and downs and keep looking ahead, even if sales have been slow”. She says, “it's only ever temporary and the next sale is always around the corner, as long as I remain dedicated to the cause.”

Alice and Art Upmarket
 
Being from Margaret River, getting to know a new crowd at Art Upmarket is particularly exciting for Alice – “I love engaging with a different network of people… and I love the buzz that's created as soon as the doors open.”
 
“I've only participated in the event once before, but it was such an exciting time and it was over all too quickly!”
 
You can meet Alice and view her captivating creations at the upcoming Art Upmarketon Saturday 15^th October at UWA.

You can also find Alice's works online at http://www.theartofalice.com/about
And on Instagram @theartofalice